Forgive me if there's already a thread on this--I searched for it with irrelevant results and I'm not about to sift through 41+ forum pages for it.

It's been about 6 years since I last used Seti@Home (BOINC didn't even exist back then, or was a very simplified shadow of itself), and one of the most handy features of it was that it would periodically auto-update and submit completed results, as well as download new tasks. I didn't have to manually click to update it if I didn't want to. I could set how often and during what timeframes to update, and it was really handy. I want to know if there's a way to set the new BOINC/Seti to do this. It's really annoying to come home from work to find that for half the day, this could have been taking full advantage of my processor, but instead it's just been sitting there with nothing to do. :/

If this setting/feature doesn't exist, kindly add it back in to the next version, please. Thanks.

... to find that for half the day ...

That's your problem (report may happen in a seconds or (at Max) after a day)
(not reported tasks do Not prevent new tasks to be downloaded, there have to be another problem)

Some threads/posts about that (the older is from 2006):
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=71541&postid=1363228#1363228
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=67935&postid=1227429#1227429
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=70298&postid=1315704#1315704

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=51362&postid=853000#853000
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=46718&postid=745537#745537
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=31922&postid=340839#340839

... but instead it's just been sitting there with nothing to do. :/

If that is really what you see (no tasks to work on):
- check/change your WU cache settings:

Maintain enough tasks to keep busy for at least XX days (make this 2-5 days)
... and up to an additional YY days (make this 0.1 days)

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/prefs.php?subset=global


Since your Computers are hidden we can't see if there are many error tasks which may also be the reason why no new tasks are given to you (this 'ban' expires (at the servers) after a day)

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- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 

Just a couple of points of clarity:

1) BOINC has existed since 2002~ish. The official switch-over from SETI Classic to BOINC-SETI happened around 2005.

2) The feature to automatically download new tasks and upload completed ones has been a staple of BOINC's features since it was released. BOINC should automatically request more work even if you have a low cache, assuming you aren't throwing out a bunch of errors in your workunits, for which projects are designed to reduce your daily quota when this happens.


I'd suggest looking through your local BOINC Manager's Event Log to see what is happening. It should tell you what BOINC is doing, such as why it is not requesting work when it runs out. If you need assistance understanding the Event Log, copy and paste it here and we can take a look.

Thank you both for taking the time to reply.

EDIT: BilBg, thank you for the links. My question about when it's uploaded is now answered. I was confused because the last time I remember, when I completed a task it would be send in immediately. So the delay was odd to me. I never let it sit there for a full 24 hours, I just pressed the update button out of impatience. :P

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1) BOINC has existed since 2002~ish. The official switch-over from SETI Classic to BOINC-SETI happened around 2005.

It's been so long for me I couldn't remember what the deal was, thanks for the clarification.

2) The feature to automatically download new tasks and upload completed ones has been a staple of BOINC's features since it was released. BOINC should automatically request more work even if you have a low cache, assuming you aren't throwing out a bunch of errors in your workunits, for which projects are designed to reduce your daily quota when this happens.

My problem isn't with requesting more work. In fact, I have too many tasks sometimes (I have it set to 1 day of work + .25 day more). My issue is with the completed tasks. The specific example I was referring to was this: One day I left for work and a SETI task of mine was set to finish in about 45 minutes. I have my "switch tasks every xx minutes" set to 60. Even switching to another task in the interim, it still would have finished in at most 3 hours. I came home that night and that self-same task was sitting there chilling at 100% for who-knows how long, and my other tasks were "waiting to run" so my processor wasn't doing anything at all.

I'd suggest looking through your local BOINC Manager's Event Log to see what is happening. It should tell you what BOINC is doing, such as why it is not requesting work when it runs out. If you need assistance understanding the Event Log, copy and paste it here and we can take a look.

I did check the logs, there were no errors and no OS-initiated stoppage during the hours I wasn't there. I also didn't see anything like "CPU is busy" that would prevent the other tasks I have from starting. Plus my husband was home all night on the internet so I'm almost positive it wasn't the lack of internet connection that caused the finished one to not be reported. Thus my confusion.

I haven't had a finished task in a while, so I can't post the log yet. Next one I get I'll see if this happens again, and update this thread with the info. I would also like to know, if I show my computer info on the website, does it show anything personally identifiable (like my IP)? I've been wary of showing it for that reason. Thanks.

Thank you both for taking the time to reply.

EDIT: BilBg, thank you for the links. My question about when it's uploaded is now answered. I was confused because the last time I remember, when I completed a task it would be send in immediately. So the delay was odd to me. I never let it sit there for a full 24 hours, I just pressed the update button out of impatience. :P

...

I haven't had a finished task in a while, so I can't post the log yet. Next one I get I'll see if this happens again, and update this thread with the info. I would also like to know, if I show my computer info on the website, does it show anything personally identifiable (like my IP)? I've been wary of showing it for that reason. Thanks.

Ah, so the largest concern was for the automatic uploading. Yes, the developers of BOINC built in a delay because over 500,000 computers pounding the servers made for a large Distributed Denial of Service for many other users. Thus, the maximum delayed upload is about 24 hours after the ask is completed.


Showing your computers does not reveal any personally identifiable information. We don't see computer names, IP addresses, or several other things about your computer. We only get to see your computer ID, avg and total credits, CPU type, OS type and GPU (if supported).

As an example, if you click on BilBg's name, then click on View Computers, what you see of his computers is what we see of yours. Only the owner of the account gets to see all the extra information.

... and my other tasks were "waiting to run" so my processor wasn't doing anything at all.

"waiting to run" can't be caused by not uploaded or not reported tasks, some setting is causing this, e.g.:
Suspend work while computer is on battery power?
Suspend work while computer is in use?
'In use' means mouse/keyboard activity in last X minutes (if X is big e.g. 600)
Suspend work if no mouse/keyboard activity in last Y minutes (set this to 'empty' --- ; if it is set to e.g. 5 the computing will stop 5 minutes after you leave the keyboard)
Suspend work when non-BOINC CPU usage is above ZZ% (I set this to 0)
Do work only between the hours of

If you see 'Waiting for memory' check also:
Memory: when computer is in use, use at most UU% of total
Memory: when computer is not in use, use at most NN% of total

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/prefs.php?subset=global

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- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 

dear Seti
I log on from time to time...however... when I do log on...its showin posts from 2009 running..
what good is that if im not current with your system???
ive been a member for a great many years. but if im stuck in 2009 how can I ever get a......WOW????

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dear Seti
I log on from time to time...however... when I do log on...its showin posts from 2009 running..
what good is that if im not current with your system???
ive been a member for a great many years. but if im stuck in 2009 how can I ever get a......WOW????

Dear David Ryzner,

With the greater sensitivity of the new version 7 application, the Project Administrators decided to run some of the old data through to see if we could find more interesting results from them. Nearly all of us are processing this older work.

Also, none of the work we do is processed in real time. The most important signals will be ones we've seen repeated from the same source, and the only way to get repetition is to keep track of the signals over a period of time.

Ultimately, any signal that reaches us would have travelled light years to get here. This is not a time-sensitive project where we must always be current. This is about recording as much data as we can, then we sift through it with our computers to find something that looks like it is intelligent.

OzzFan